It was 5 years ago…. On April 1st, 2006, I uploaded my first ever video to you tube.

I was running my training from my garage at the time, training ONLY Wrestlers & Football players, kinda like what I do now

I was rockin’ a self made web site and a simple blog because web designers back in the day were charging over $ 200 per hour. OUCH!

My lack of knowledge with web sites never stopped me from trying my best to spread the word about my training methods.

I still remember recording that very first video. I went up stairs & asked my wife if she could record a quick video for me as a favor I was using a digital camera back then and as you can tell, my garage was heated, I was sweating bullets during my workout

Friends AND family thought I was crazy, thinking something was wrong me because I had ideas of teaching people how to get strong on the internet. The BIG joke is that I could barely use a computer, unable to even create a PDF document!

Truth be told, I AM CRAZY, this is probably why I am successful.

My craziness blended with my mental toughness AND my passion for strength and muscle building is unrivaled. It drove me to where I am today, all the way back from age 13 when I dreamed of opening my own gym one day…until finally making it happen, even if the start was in my garage…

It was heaven…. I always wanted my own gym. I used to have my Dad drive me all around NJ so I could visit the gyms and see what type of equipment they had and how they ran things. I saw myself as a gym owner, I KNEW it would happen one day!

Beginning in my garage and training only the athletes I wanted to work with was a dream to me. Others laughed while I kept charging onward & upward.

I remember when my wife and I bought that house, I was hunting for a home with a 2 car garage because I KNEW what I wanted to do I knew I would begin my business inside my garage while working as a teacher.

The ceilings were barely high enough for my hands to punch a hole in the ceiling, there might have been 1 inch of clearance, NO kidding!

Before you tube was in existence, I was working with Wrestlers and Football players from my parents back yard and their tiny 1 car garage. Imperfection didn’t bother me in the least, on the other hand, lack of action DID bother me. I knew if I just worked my ass off, good things would finally happen.

I TRULY miss those simple days when the internet was still young, where the “noise” was less and everything was extremely raw and natural. There were less Bull Shit artists on the internet and certainly less copy cats and cry babies.

There were maybe 4 or 5 web sites that you could truly go to for quality training information compared to nowadays where there is an overabundance of information that confuses everyone to no end.

I would go to wrestling clubs to train wrestlers with bodyweight only, often times selling workouts and training manuals that I self made from Staples with a 3 ring binder that I shoved inside my red Adidas Bag.

I went out and trained with real people in the real world, yet today, so many people only see the outer layer of The Underground.

They see a big following and a popular blog on the internet, a busy warehouse gym…. they think it all happened easily and overnight.

People rarely dig deep to see what REALLY exists and how it ALL came to fruition. The late nights, the early mornings, the work on weekends, the working during my lunches and never listening to the radio for countless years on end as I would only listen to training or business related CDs to gain more knowledge and bring my closer and closer to my dreams.

I did this as a married man with kids, trust me, it would have been WAY easier if I wasn’t a family man, BUT, my family motivated me to kick ass, I wanted my kids to always be able to look at me as someone who took charge of life and lived his dreams rather than dreamed his life. I KNEW if I did it, my kids would do the same with their own dreams

It was a struggle and people often told me to quit. I was told to keep my teaching job with my pension and health benefits safely lined up.

My training days go back further than many dare to imagine. When I was 19 or 20 I got a job as a trainer in a hospital fitness center. I loved it and worked my way through undergrad and still kept some hours when I was a full time teacher. Then, I began grad school while coaching wrestling and teaching full time.

Somehow, someway, I found time to travel to people’s homes and train them in their living rooms.

At the end of the night, around 9 PM, I would be found in the gym, training with my walkman on, because that was sooooooo damn long ago there was NO such thing as an I POD!!!

In high school I would stay awake late at night, reading all my bodybuilding magazines until 1, 2 or even 3 AM in the middle of the night. Today, it’s NO different. I have vintage training books scattered all around my house so I can read them on a regular basis. I can’t put them down, I can’t let them go.

As they say, Every overnight success story has a long 12 year history.

For those of you reading my blog and hoping to become a Strength Coach and run your own Warehouse Gym, let me tell you…. it takes WORK, a LOT of damn hard work.

With the internet, people forget about real life human interaction, which is what REALLY counts.

Wanna know when I feel MOST at home & most comfortable? When I’m training athletes or working with other Coaches in my gym, where the music is loud, the weights are rusty and I’m sweating bullets. That is ME. It’s where the proving grounds REALLY happen.

One guy told me I could grow my business anywhere because I’m a “Marketing Machine.”

ha ha ha

How soon we forget and how quick we are to judge when we do not know the journey of a man. The ability to grow my business comes down to the fact that the athletes I train become Bad Mother F**ers. They become one man wrecking machines and the RESULTS are what count the most. Period.

Want “marketing”? It’s called getting AMAZING results and showing your clients you truly & genuinely care for their success in sports AND life.

Those who see the surface think a fancy web site with cool logos will do the trick. Then, they wonder why they haven’t made millions of dollars after their first year. Give me, Give me, Give me…. go to Mc Fucking Donalds if you want instant gratification.

In the REAL World, you gotta earn your success, there are NO hand outs.

The weights are my passion and my blood.

It’s what has ALWAYS driven me and it’s what I live and breathe. I want to lift heavy shit and be around heavy shit. I want to learn about ALL things strength because chasing strength helped me build my mental strength and save my life in the process.

Nothing I have ever came to me easily. There have been MANY struggles and I had to earn everything I’ve achieved through blood, sweat and tears.

500 videos in 5 years is a small milestone.

A large reason why I am still here is because of my wife and kids, and, a small group of close friends who believed in me and guided me along the way.

And… a HUGE reason as to why I bust my ass so much is because of the feedback I get from YOU. I have gained so much from the world of strength and muscle building and I see what it does for others so this is just the beginning. You can expect MUCH more from me, every time, I’ll be giving my ALL, it’s the only way I know how to roll!

Thank YOU

Peace!

–Z–